During this visit, you should work with one or more groups of students if you haven't already, and observe your teacher doing the same. For this journal entry, describe your teacher's teaching style. What type of relationships with students does he or she nurture in his or her classes? How do students perceive that power is distributed in the classes? Does this vary within or across the different classes the teacher has? Cite examples from your observations to support your inferences. Remember to reflect on what style of teaching you will gravitate toward and the how you want to be perceived by your students.
During one of my visits to North Kingstown High School, my CT was doing an activity with his team classes. Team classes are made up of students who are falling behind in reading, writing, and math skills and therefore the classes are kept very small with only about 9 students per class. This lesson was on the parts of a lab report and my CT designed an activity where the students, in groups, were to read through a college level lab report and pick out areas where they saw evidence of the scientific method being used. The students worked in groups 3, and I worked with one of the groups, my CT with another and the resource teacher with the last group.
With his team classes I have noticed that my CT takes on a stricter personality than with his other classes. The team classes take a longer time to settle down and focus so he has to be a little strict with them or they would walk all over him. It works well having three adults in the room because if one teacher sits with every group the students stay focused which leaves more time for learning instead of disciplinary actions. When the students are getting way out of control my CT handles it by taking individual trouble makers outside and speaking with them before letting them back into the classroom. I like this approach because I have observed teachers that kick students out when they are misbehaving but in my opinion that just takes time away from learning. Therefore, my personal style when it comes to discipline is similar to my CT’s because we both believe that students should be kept in the classroom unless absolutely necessary to remove them.
In his regular CP Biology class and his elective Comparative Anatomy class, my CT’s teaching style is a little different. His approach here is a little more hands off. During a lab on microscope use in his Biology class he had the students work in groups of two and we both wandered around the room checking in with the groups and providing any assistance needed. This approach would probably not work with the team classes because if a teacher was on the other side of the room the students would most likely get off topic quickly. This approach is also nice because the students get to work freely without being micromanaged and yet the teacher can still work with students on a one to one basis.
So far I have found my CT’s teaching style to be similar to how I want mine to be which is nice because it makes learning from him easy. I have found it very interesting how teaching style can vary from class to class but it appears to be very necessary. It seems that the better you know your students and your classes the better you can change your instruction style to provide the best learning environment possible in each different situation.
During one of my visits to North Kingstown High School, my CT was doing an activity with his team classes. Team classes are made up of students who are falling behind in reading, writing, and math skills and therefore the classes are kept very small with only about 9 students per class. This lesson was on the parts of a lab report and my CT designed an activity where the students, in groups, were to read through a college level lab report and pick out areas where they saw evidence of the scientific method being used. The students worked in groups 3, and I worked with one of the groups, my CT with another and the resource teacher with the last group.
With his team classes I have noticed that my CT takes on a stricter personality than with his other classes. The team classes take a longer time to settle down and focus so he has to be a little strict with them or they would walk all over him. It works well having three adults in the room because if one teacher sits with every group the students stay focused which leaves more time for learning instead of disciplinary actions. When the students are getting way out of control my CT handles it by taking individual trouble makers outside and speaking with them before letting them back into the classroom. I like this approach because I have observed teachers that kick students out when they are misbehaving but in my opinion that just takes time away from learning. Therefore, my personal style when it comes to discipline is similar to my CT’s because we both believe that students should be kept in the classroom unless absolutely necessary to remove them.
In his regular CP Biology class and his elective Comparative Anatomy class, my CT’s teaching style is a little different. His approach here is a little more hands off. During a lab on microscope use in his Biology class he had the students work in groups of two and we both wandered around the room checking in with the groups and providing any assistance needed. This approach would probably not work with the team classes because if a teacher was on the other side of the room the students would most likely get off topic quickly. This approach is also nice because the students get to work freely without being micromanaged and yet the teacher can still work with students on a one to one basis.
So far I have found my CT’s teaching style to be similar to how I want mine to be which is nice because it makes learning from him easy. I have found it very interesting how teaching style can vary from class to class but it appears to be very necessary. It seems that the better you know your students and your classes the better you can change your instruction style to provide the best learning environment possible in each different situation.